May 08, 2005

• We have plenty of Mexican, Central American, Chinese, Thai, and Italian here in LA, so I guess I want something besides these cuisines. I'm hoping for some good bbq or soul food, but if the restaurant serves an unusual cuisine (Tibetian, Basque, Georgian, etc...) I'd be into it.
• Incidentally, I'll be in DC the weekend immediately after that! And, I'm looking for the exact same info! DC's getting overrun!
• squid, just don't go to Biddy Mulligan's. The food's overpriced, the atmosphere is stuffy and uninviting, and the service is subpar. I don't live there, so I can't really give any recommendations for any place, I just know the places I don't like there...
• Can you imagine if The Giant Squid and I were to be in DC at the same time? A giant black hole of squidousity would form over the white house. Who knows the chaos that would ensue???
• The squidosity would be tentacular for sure, squiddy.
• Calamarific even.
• A Calamari Calamity? (boo, booo, booo)
• Man, tentacles all over the White House lawns... an army linked to take over Foggy Bottom. Ahh, what a happy little dream.
• stand in front of the capitol bldg...look to the right...that's the arboretum...inside is a real, live carboniferous forest...it's only like stepping 256 million years into the past...for free...fun! as for food, i think there's a big dumpster out back...dig around! (i mostly ate at museum restaurants...about as far from cool and inexpensive as you can get...seven dollar croissant, anyone?)
• Two squids in my area? *heads farther into the suburbs* I live very close to Arlington, but I don't head into the city much. But I'm sure SideDish can help you out with some good recommendations. /useless itch
• DC downtown seems to be overrun with high-end steak places or fast food. I do know of a tapas place called Jaleo on 7th that's pretty good. If you find something good please post about it.
• Arlington, Virginia, just across the river from DC, is loaded with great restaurants, squidranch.
• How about some recomendations swacky. Anything you especially like?
• BTW, how about if TGS and I were to take over the capital and do that funky-ass Japanese tentacle porn thing on W and the Missus? Disgusting, I admit, but satisfying at the same time...
• Torluath beat me to it, so I'll just second Jaleo, though I go to the Bethesda one, never been to the DC one. The Washingtonian has reviews of lots of different restaurants and keeps a pretty good listing of what's on in DC. Worth a look.
• Okay, bring the twins in, and Jeb! as well, and I'll hire the videographer, and you got yourself a movie. Based on public reaction (and sales), we can do a sequel with Tony and Cherie Blair. I get to hang from Big Ben for that one. Oh, or take on Arnold and Maria while hanging from the Golden Gate. Ideas. Ideas. Ideas.
• Just moved away after living there for 7 years. On the exotic side, I'd suggest Zeds for really good Ethiopian (Georgetown). Jaleo was one of our favorite downtown places, as was the District Chop House (mainly for the great locally brewed beer). The washingtonian best bargain/best restaurants issues were our bible while we were there- available online http://www.washingtonian.com/dining/100bbindex.html. Enjoy!
• Can second Zeds as very good. Fun food, too, for group dining. Such a turnover in restaurants that many of the ones from a few years ago are kaput, now, alas. Go by the guides suggested above and you aren't likely to go far wrong. Caution: Avoid eating any local shellfish in May, no matter what your waiter says is OK.
• If you're looking for some late-night post-drinking greasy unhealthy food, I strongly recommend Mario's in Arlington. Get the steak & cheese. Arlington also has several good Vietnamese restaurants close to the DC border. There's a great bar in DC near Dupont Circle called The Brickskeller - it has a great dive feel to it, and one of the largest beer selections I've ever seen.
• Check out Thaiphoon near Dupont Circle. They make a mean tofu curry and try the iced Thai coffee.
• It's not cheap cheap, but it is cheap for French food and I've loved every meal I'd had at Montmartre. They might even serve you some offal.
• Try Meskerem on 18th St in Adams Morgan for some tasty Ethiopian! (Adams Morgan is pretty fertile restaurant-and-bar hopping territory; see link above) The Eritrean restaurant Harambe, also on 18th, has also had some good reviews, though I haven't yet been there myself. Indique on Connecticut Avenue by the Cleveland Park metro stop has some fab Indian-- and take in a movie at the fabulous old Uptown cinema (Art Deco, one screen, gorgeous sound) while you're there. Have fun in my hometown!
• When I was in DC (admittedly several years ago), I stayed on DuPont Circle and ate a couple times at Afterwords. They had a fantastic cornflake-encrusted catfish, a nice beer menu including several local brews, and when you were done it was ten steps to go bookshopping. Added historical nuance: during the unpleasantness of the last administration, the FBI subpeonaed Ms. Lewinsky's book purchases from here and, iirc, they refused to deliver them up. Power to the people, etc!
• Here's a link to the 100 best restaurants, as listed in the Washingtonian. And here's a link to the best bargain restaurants, as listed in the Washingtonian.
• Pho 75 in Arlington is fantastic - Vietnamese Pho (beef noodle soup) in about 15 different varieties, depending on what cuts of meat you want in it.
• hey squid! how fun! you'll love it here. as mentioned before, just head to adams morgan, that's where all the really great places are. but then again, i'm partial, since i live there. heh. d.c. is known for its proliferation of ethiopian restaurants, i like dukem on U street, it's also Metro (subway) accessible. it's hard to have a bad ethiopian meal in d.c. there's a huge ethiopian community here. another fairly different cuisine you might enjoy is cuban. one of my very favorite cafes in the city is habana village, also a salsa club. a very sweet restaurant complete with fireplace is tucked into the back of the first floor, behind the cigar bar. (don't worry, it's not too smoky). better yet, just email me and we can get together if you have time! you can come meet mr. sidedish, finley the dog and hotsy and asta the kitties.
• Treat yourself to some Vietnamese. There are a lot of Vietnamese people in Arlington. The Clarendon area in Arlington was once known as Little Saigon, I believe. Today, it is becoming a strip mall disguised as a fake downtown, but there are still a few quirky eateries left near the Metro, including Vietnamese restaurants. One is Cafe Dalat. Another is Nam-Viet, right around the corner, on a sidestreet, from Cafe Dalat and Queen Bee, which is another Vietnamses restaurant. And then there's also a pretty-good kabob restaurant at the Clarendon Metro. The DC area is also a great place to get Ethiopian food. Meskerem in Adams Morgan is well known, but Lalibela, just past the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse on Columbia Pike in Arlington, is good and not too snooty. It's a white stucco-esque building with green trim that you'll miss if you blink. I've gone a few times. Each time, the place is full of Ethiopians -- very few white yups in there ... until I show up. In Chinatown in DC, check out Burma. It's listed in the Washingtonian bargain-eats link I posted earlier. On Calvert, between Connecticut and Adams Mill/18th in DC, you have Mama Ayesha's (also listed in Washingtonian). Fun decor and good food. It's a middle-eastern place. Oh, and let's not forget the world-famous Ben's Chili Bowl at 13th and U, NW, I believe. It's one of those been-there-forever diners that famous people sometimes frequent. And a couple of blocks down (at 11th and U, I think), near the U Street Metro, is the Bohemian Caverns. Check out the cavelike basement. This place was once an incubator for jazz musicians. I think Tuesdays are half-price Belgian-beer nights.
• This thread is making me hungry!
• possum! ben's! of course. one of bill cosby's faves. and i second bohemian caverns.
• should we turn this into a "squid's in town let's have a mofi meetup" thing??
• Well, now that we all have our MoFi T-shirts, it certainly would make it easier to spot one another at a restaurant.
• BTW, how about if TGS and I were to take over the capital and do that funky-ass Japanese tentacle porn thing on W and the Missus? Disgusting, I admit, but satisfying at the same time... They'll never go for that. They prefer to masturbate horses. Food Recommendations! Someone mentioned Pho. I don't know if you get that in LA, but if you don't, it's good here. I went to thaiphoon once, it was good, but nothing special. The good eatin's in Arlington. This person knows what's up. Rocklands/Carpool is on Fairfax Blvd in Ballston (part of Arlington) and has probably the best Carolina style BBQ (chopped pork and coleslaw) in the area, and comes with a bar/pool hall. As for "cool" places, Brickskellers is good for beer (really, they have every beer, ever) but the food is bad, so bad. Lost Dog Cafe in Westover (Arlington) is a local favorite (almost as many different beers, great pizza and sammiches) if you're in the area. Ri Ra in bethesda has good irish food and guinness, and pub quiz on tuesday night. Old Town Alexandria has some good places, maybe even a couple I'd call funky, and this is probably where you're most likely to get good soul/cajun food. A recommandation for any incoming tourists- if you're downtown, go to the Old Post Office for lunch- it's like a food court, only good. It's cheaper than museum food, and the architecture is old and neat. And there's a ben & jerry's, and sometimes a jazz band. A question for any local monkeys: Has anyone been to the Armenian cafe down the street from Lost Dog Cafe? I failed to notice it for months, but I went there last week for the first time and it was great. They had homemade mango ice cream, which is my new favorite thing in the whole world.
• haven't been, smallish bear, but that mango ice cream might just lure me over there. mmmm.
• I really dislike Adams Morgan, but good Ethiopian food and monkey shenanigans may persuade me to possibly go, maybe.
• should we turn this into a "squid's in town let's have a mofi meetup" thing?? A MeFi meetup is already happening on May 22 ... any chance some of you monkeys would join us?
• If you do want to have a meetup, I will be leaving on the 22nd, so I can't make it to that one. Let me check with my producer and see what night might make for the best one to have a meetup. I'll leave it up to you local monkeys to pick the place, but if I had my druthers, I'd love a BBQ place that serves beer/booze close by Arlington where we are staying... Vietnamese a close second, soul food a third.
• I lived in DC for about 7 years before moving away, and many of my favorites have been mentioned. Bens, Meskeram, Dukem, District Chophouse (try the bourbon stout, absolutely AMAZING!). My favorite Vietnamese place was Nam Viet on Connecticut by the Cleveland Park metro (across the street and down from the Uptown Theater). Also, check out Lebanese Taverna at the Woodly Park metro. And there are some really good touristy seafood places by the Waterfront metro.
• Oh yeah, for Soul Food, check out the Florida Ave. Grill.
• haven't been, smallish bear, but that mango ice cream might just lure me over there. mmmm. It was the special flavor of the day, unfortunately. The other flavors all looked good though, and it's all homemade. Great thread. I'm not in the city too often, but I'll have to think of excuses to go so I can try some of these places. I heard the zoo has new cheetahs cubs. Fuzzy animals and Ethiopian food, oh boy.
• I've got an email out to my producer re: a good night for a meetup. I'd really love it if it works out for a LA/DC kinda groovie monkey love meetup if we can. Are there any monkeys who would like to do a meetup, and if so, what are the nights that you would be available for some monkey love?
• smallish bear, the National Zoo does indeed have new cheetah cubs, their second litter within a year. (Sort of like kitten photos, only more dangerous) On the Ethiopian restaurant front, I'd say Zed's probably has slightly better food than Meskerem, but is also a bit pricier (I think). Sadly I'm in London and won't be available for DC meetup fun, but enjoy!
• So, Friday we get out of our conference at 4:30. How about Friday night?